Mark Maloney on Kentucky sports

BEIJING – Germany’s Jan Frodeno outkicked Canada’s Simon Whitfield in the final 100 meters to capture the gold medal in the Olympic men’s triathlon Tuesday morning (Monday night U.S.).

Frodeno, a day after his 27^th birthday, finished in 1 hour, 48 minutes, 53.28 seconds.

“This was the race of my life,” said Frodeno, a 6-foot-4, 165-pounder who trains in South Africa. “I had the tunnel vision that I’ve always wished for.”

Whitfield, the 2000 Olympic champion, held on for silver in 1:48:58.47.

The two co-favorites followed.

New Zealand’s Bevan Docherty, silver-medalist at the 2004 Olympics and this year’s World Championships, bagged bronze in 1:49:05.59. That was more than eight seconds ahead of world champion and top seed Javier Gomez of Spain.

The course began with a 1,500-meter (metric mile) swim on the Thirteen Ming Tombs Reservoir, followed by 40 kilometers (about 25 miles) of cycling and a 10-kilometer (6.2-mile) run.

Three-time Olympian Hunter Kemper of Colorado Springs led the U.S. trio, placing seventh in 1:49:48.75. He finished 17^th at the 2000 Olympics and ninth in 2004.

“It was really warm today, but I did all I could,” said Kemper, 32. “That’s all I had. My run-fitness wasn’t quite there where I wanted it to be.”

Temperature at the start, 10 a.m. (p.m. EDT), was 81 degrees, with 69 percent humidity.

Jarrod Shoemaker of Sudbury, Mass., finished 18^th (1:50:46.39) and Matty Reed of Boulder, Colo., took 32^nd (1:52:30.44).

“I felt like I met my expectations,” said Shoemaker, at 26 a first-time Olympian. “I felt good on the run but my legs were a little dead on the bike, so I just did what I could.

“I was coming on strong at the end, but I was a little too far coming off the bike. When you’re 30 seconds down, you can’t really make it up.”

Reed, a New Zealander who became a U.S. citizen in 2007, said he wasn’t sure why he didn’t meet expectations.

With 2,000 meters left, the lead pack was down to four – the three medalists and Gomez..

Whitfield briefly dropped back about 5 yards, looking beaten. But he came back with about a quarter-mile left and kicked past everyone.

But Frodeno had an answer.

“I knew this race would be hard,” he said. “When you’ve prepared for that, you know you can do the last 500 meters. You can rest later.”

This entry was posted on August 19, 2008 at 1:43 am and is filed under Olympics, Triathlon. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.